Two weeks have passed since we arrived in Gloucester, during which we repaired and upgraded the defenses, which were quite run-down. I spend most of my time inscribing runes, as, while King Rience hadn't employed any mages until now, who knows if he won't find some. I was constantly observing his army with my Spectral Hawks, but it was impossible to always tell what was happening.
-"Eno."-Shining and Margaret walked in.-"Promulgator asked us to come."
-"I need your help."-I nodded.
They sat in front of me, waiting for me to continue.
-"Because of what happened in Newcastle, I got inflicted by quite a nasty… curse, I guess. I can't manage it on my own without getting influenced, so I need your help."
-"What!"-They instantly jumped from their seats, rushing to me.
I showed them my right hand, which had now started to blacken as if it were being burnt, and explained the details. When they heard everything, they looked at me with some anger, but focused on what was important.
-"I won't lecture you now. What can we do for you?"
-"Miracles. I confirmed that they have an effect restraining this 'curse', but my miracles are now too weak to have any real effect."
-"Is it that bad?"-Margaret asked, touching my hand carefully.
-"Annoying. It doesn't affect my magic, so while I'm weaker, it's not that bad. The issue is the mental influence; I found myself spiraling into some dangerous extremes, so I need your help to ground myself."
They nodded, Shining already using miracles to help me.
-"You shouldn't have hid it from us, Eno."-Margaret admonished me.
-"At first, I thought it wouldn't be such an issue."-I admitted.
-"Sigh. I guess it's not easy to correct your habits, but I'm happy that you started to depend on us."-She held my right hand tightly.
I just smiled at that.
Since that conversation, Shining really left my side, focusing most of her attention on suppressing the curse. But the world wouldn't allow me to rest, as shortly after, King Rience finally made his first big move. He ordered his army to move toward Gloucester, but again, didn't besiege it fully, just blockaded it. Instead, he had his men pillage the surrounding villages, trying to force us to confront him directly.
And he was right to assume I couldn't allow him to act like that, but he still couldn't understand who he was facing. I rallied with Margaret's cavalry, using teleportation to bring us outside the city and even the blockade, crushing any small force he dispatched into the countryside before returning the same way.
King Rience stopped only after more than 1,000 of his new recruits lay dead, without equipment and training, they couldn't confront the elite cavalry charging at them. Only then did he remember that my magic could easily decide the outcome of a battle, if not even the war, so he changed his approach.
No longer acting so aggressively, he instead attempted to confine me in the city, while slowly wearing me down. Using the schematics of trebuchets I gave him at the beginning of the war, he constructed tens of them and ordered constant shelling of the city with everything at hand.
At first, he used stones and other normal projectiles, which were blocked by the walls and barriers we set up, but later, he got 'creative' . Mud, dirt, and even dead animals or people, everything that could be launched, ended up splashed over the city. While it was mostly harmless due to my keeping the barrier up, the psychological effect was greater than before.
In just a few weeks, people were noticeably gloomier, and although there were no calls for surrender or negotiations, it was obvious that as time passed, the situation would only get worse. But restoring morale wasn't an easy thing to do in our predicament; it was already good that we secured enough food so that we didn't have to ration it from the start.
In the end, the breakthrough idea came from Cellinia, who, one quiet evening, lay on my legs when I sat on the sofa, working on some plans. She looked up at me, her brow furrowed with worry due to my complexion getting worse.
-"Eno, you should stop playing this war by their rules."
-"You mean?"-I looked at her.
-"You forced yourself into the perspective of a native from these lands, trying to play with a hand limited to mostly what was already here, but you're not from here."
I shifted my gaze to the dark sky outside.
-"You are worried that your actions will cause unexpected consequences? That bringing Laterano into this mess would harm your people, aren't you?"-She continued.
-"Yes."-I admitted.-"This war is… messy… The battles on the surface are one thing, but the undercurrents are something that can harm Lateran if approached carelessly."
-"But you are everything but a careless person."-She smiled.
-"Thanks."-I also smiled at her compliment.
-"I can see that you treat this place seriously, maybe not like home yet, but it's definitly important to you. So why not make it home? I believe Artoria would also be happy if you did so."
-"But what about Laterano? Should my selfish wish make them get involved in this mess?"
-"Eno, why do you always think like that?"-She rolled her eyes.-"You put Laterano above yourself, while not benefiting from it. Even when you tried to distance yourself from it and your position, you still considered its interests first. So why not finally use the benefits of your title, not just bear the responsibilities?"
-"But Lateran neutrality…"
-"It's not Terra. Anything happening here won't echo there."-She raised her hand and put it on my cheek.-"You always wanted Laterano to change, so start now. You said it was stale, rotted; then, force it to move."
I caught her hand and kissed it lightly.
-"It'll get busy."
-"We'll manage, together."
-"So be it."-I nodded slightly.-"I'll contact Lemuen."
-"Mhmm."-She looked at me with a doting affection.
And so, everything started to move.
Due to time shenanigans happening between here and Terra, it took two weeks before the First Lateran Army arrived in Gloucester; the 500 Apostolic Knights and 10,000 Pontifica Cohors Lateran soldiers, 2,500 of which were Gun-Knights. The white army of Sankta and Liberi walking in orderly formations through the streets was a truly striking image compared to the disorderly mob camping outside the walls.
But the Lateran army was unbalanced, leaning toward the defensive approach, forgoing many offensive capabilities. The biggest issue for me here was the lack of cavalry in any form, even its more modern iterations. As such, I needed to plan every battle as the defending side, giving up the initiative to the enemy. But this was a small price to pay in exchange for the power the Lateran army had.
Only magic could rival the power of Guardian Guns in this world; there was no technology that could contend with them. Few champions, such as Artoria's Knights of the Round Table, should be able to fight with the Apostolic Knights, but in the whole rebel army, there were maybe three people who could claim the title of champion, and even then, facing 500 of them was impossible.
As such, I just needed to make King Rience impatient; to make him think that we were barely holding up, so that he ordered the direct attack on the city. To achieve it, first, I made only part of the Lateran army enter the city, ~1,500 people, causing the illusion that I was pushed to the corner, using my personal forces for the first time.
Rest was the matter of counterintelligence. We knew there were spies in the city, so we fed them with information that painted the situation to be far more dire than it was. But this alone wouldn't be enough, we needed for King Rience to take the initiative, so there had to be some kind of pressure that would make him fear waiting us out.
So I used my reputation, creating a rumor that I was preparing to use a spell that would destroy the rebels. There was nothing else, no details, no proof; only this quiet rumor that was soon quickly suppressed. But this fast suppression was what sold it as an absolute secret, and the traitors bought it instantly. In just two days, King Rience started to prepare his forces for a direct attack, constructing siege towers and ladders in his camp.
I watched it from the walls, with a slight smile as I imagined the fate the rebels would soon meet.
-"Eno."-Shining approached me, holy light already on her hand.
-"Thank you."
-"Be careful."-She stopped by my side.-"I can tell that the more resentment you accumulate, the worse it gets, and war…"
-"I know, I'm a magnet for resentment as the commander in a war."-My eyes showed some exhaustion.
-"Why won't you leave the command to others?"
-"We both know that only the Holy Son can command the Lateran army to attack."
She shook her head but didn't speak anymore.
King Rience finished his preparations in three short days, starting the assault at the dawn of the fourth day. The towers slowly moved forward, pushed by the same people who constructed them, the knights behind them, hiding from any attacks from the walls. But there were no arrows that flew to stop them.
Apostolic Knights and Gun-Knights just waited, giving the enemy all the time they needed to approach. I flew high above the battlefield, not planning to act, just to watch. And it quickly became apparent that there was no need for me to act.
When the first soldiers were just before the walls, Apostolic Knights took their positions, aiming their heavy rotary guns at the crowd below. Gun-Knights standing between them, also took aim, their focus on the higher valued targets. I raised my sword, slowly pointing it at the army below me.
-"Fire."-I spoke, my voice quiet compared to the bustle of the battlefield, but it still echoed around clearly.
And then, everything erupted.
Countless gunshots broke the previous strange stillness of the battlefield. Before many could comprehend what was going on, their lives were taken by a bullet. There was no mercy or consideration; I ordered them to shoot, and thus the enemy was to die.
I watched the chaos, I saw how King Rience fled with a few of his guards, I observed how the enemy started to escape, but that was what I expected, what I knew would happen. When the sounds of the guns disappeared, leaving only screams of pain and fear, I slowly floated back to the city, not caring about the battle anymore.
In the evening, I received the preliminary report from Margaret. There were no casualties on our side, which was not surprising, but the enemy was broken. ~4,000 dead and ~5,000 injured, the remaining >1,000 escaped into the countryside and forests. Assuming King Rience will gather them all back, his territory now has only ~5,000 people defending it, a drop in the bucket for such a large amount of land.
I tasked Shining with taking care of the wounded while dividing our force between Margaret, Cellinia, and Viviana. Margaret will lead the main force of her cavalry, 300 Apostolic Knights, and 5,000 Lateran soldiers, leading it toward King Rience's capital. Cellinia and Viviana will capture smaller cities that supported his rebellion, each leading 50 Mageknights, 100 Apostolic Knights, and 2,500 Lateran soldiers.
I took the command position in the back, coordinating the logistics with Qingyan, but in truth, it was an excuse to not be on the battlefield. So I just watched how the blue, representing Artoria's Britain on the map, slowly bled into the rebellious regions. Week by week, King Rience's territory shrank, and, by the height of the summer, he controlled only a part of North Wales.
He rallied most of his army to his seat of power in Abergwyngregyn, forcefully recruiting peasants while burning their villages and farms behind. While this succeeded in slowing us down, the real consequences were the famine that started to spread in the parts of Wales, where those left behind in the ashes had nothing to survive on.
As King Rience didn't need children, the elderly, or even women, he only took able men to the army, leaving the rest to die. And they would die if not for Margaret begging me to save them. So, while this caused our campaign to halt for the rest of this year, I ordered my army to focus on rebuilding the destroyed territories, even bringing food from Laterano to alleviate the shortages.
To help with everything, Lemuen sends a few hundreds of personnel from the Lateran Curia, especially the Notarial Hall from under the Fifth Tribunal and Ecclesia Requietum from the Sixth Tribunal. Notarial Hall acted as the enforcers and temporary officials, taking care of the management under the orders of the Curia, while Ecclesia Requietum took care of the religious needs, causing a mass conversion of Wales to the Lateran Church.
Not long after, the few priests who worked with me in the York region also officially converted, bringing with them many other people spread around the whole of Britain. The sudden explosion in the faithful caused me to permanently establish a section of the Sanctae Lateranae Eccliesia in the Britain, appointing a new Cardinal to act as representative for the faithful here in Laterano.
By the time next winter arrived, three-fourths of Wales were under our control, but the damage caused by King Rience was extensive. According to reports from the Third and Fourth Tribunals, it would take two years before the region could return to its previous productivity, assuming that manpower needs were met. But as the situation seemed to calm down, a new development occurred north, something I knew would take place, but it still caught me off guard.
King Urien was dead. Officially, he was killed by a rebellious messenger, who attacked after being rejected by the king. Unofficially, Morgan and Mostima orchestrated the whole plot, leaving no traces behind. But the consequences of this were far-reaching, the region of Rheged was now in chaos, fractured between nobles fighting for title with what few soldiers remained there, while the new front was put in danger due to lack of command.
As I couldn't take it over due to my promise with Vortigern, Morgan sent Agravain to assume that role, leaving me to deal with Rheged. And so, this winter was full of chaos, most of the country suffering, but only by cutting off the festering flesh, Artoria will be able to rule a united country in the future. Since the start of the war, almost half of noble households disappeared, some quietly due to Mostima's and Morgan's machinations, some loudly in rebellions, but before anyone could notice, the political landscape fully shifted.
From now on, the focus will truly be on building, not just fighting. It was clear that the war would end in our favor; even with losses, our advantage only grew. So the war fully entered into its next stage, the founding of Artoria's kingdom.